Lloyds Bank AMTC hosts tomorrow's engineers

Engineering graduate team in testing air-power project

A multi-national team of graduates from one of the UK's biggest engineering groups have been working on a project to develop an air-powered motor while on a placement at the Lloyds Bank Advanced Manufacturing Training Centre (AMTC) on the MTC campus.

The nine-strong team from global engineering group Meggitt PLC spent a week at the Coventry-based AMTC and were tasked with building the fastest reciprocating air motor possible. The assignment was part of Meggitt's intensive three-year graduate training programme which also involves international and non-technical placements.

The graduates, from the UK, United States and France were split into two teams for the demanding project. It involved them competing for business by designing the motor, predicting its maximum speed, manufacturing a prototype to precise specifications, problem solving and preparing a business case for high volume manufacture.

Meggitt's global learning and development director Sushma Hayes said the assignment made a valuable contribution to the graduates' exacting training programme.

"The graduates worked extremely hard on this project. The opportunity to use the world-class equipment in the new Advanced Manufacturing Training Centre was a valuable experience for the team, and the specific engineering project they were tasked with developed a wide range of engineering, electronics, software, design, materials and problem-solving capabilities," she said.

"They received practical hands-on guidance and training from experts at the AMTC throughout this assignment, which was extremely valuable," she added.

Meggitt PLC, with its head office in Christchurch, is a UK-based global engineering group specialising in extreme environment components and assemblies for the aerospace and defence industries. It has facilities all over the world, employing more than 11,000 people. It has UK factories in a number of locations including Coventry, Birmingham, Fareham and Basingstoke.

Dan Pearson, business development manager at the AMTC, said the Meggitt graduates had been able to use cutting-edge equipment at the centre which was among the best available worldwide.

"We were delighted to host the graduates from Meggitt, and it was a good example of our ability to prepare the engineers of tomorrow for the kind of high value manufacturing skills which industry demands," he said.